SUMMARY The proposed African Cancer Leaders Institute (ACLI) is a ?meeting within a meeting? designed to coincide with the biennial AORTIC conference, beginning with the forthcoming, ?Cancer in Africa: Making Strides, Creating Solutions? in Kigali, Rwanda, November 7-10, 2017. The ACLI will identify young clinical research leaders who are capable of leading interdisciplinary teams to improve cancer treatment in Africa. The long-term goal of the ACLI is to provide an intellectually stimulating platform to propel emerging global cancer leaders from Africa and the US to receive support for innovative cancer research in Africa, and to stimulate an African network for emerging leaders in cancer research in Africa. The ACLI platform will have annual goals and objectives set by the Education and Research Sub-Committees of AORTIC in collaboration with the ACLI program Organizers. The ACLI will widely solicit competitive applications from the US and Africa. Five emerging Leaders will be fully-funded for travel and participation in ACLI and the AORTIC conference. Five emerging Leaders from high-income countries with meritorious abstracts and application will be selected for Merit travel award in order to forge professional relationships and foster peer mentorship. Participants will attend lectures on best practices in developing a research career, identifying and developing cancer research projects, and disseminating research to a variety of audiences. Special sessions will be arranged for ACLI participants to discuss and evaluate the concepts presented at the AORTIC conference to enhance participants' learning and career development experience. All participants will have a chance to be mentored by Senior Leaders attending the main conference. Each ACLI participant will be asked to prepare a brief 15 minute overview of career accomplishments and plans for their career development activities as an emerging leader for cancer research in Africa. We will track a number of metrics including conference evaluations, career landmarks, publication records and the number of ACLI members who compete successfully for Africa focused K43 and K07 or K23 grants.